cooking, part deux

I repeat, the food here is exceptional! But every now and then we have longings for good Tex-Mex food. I've been "collecting" all the pieces as I find them.... nacho chips..... flour tortillas... avacados.... and some bright orange cheese named Mimolette (almost cheddar, close but no cigar). Refried beans is another matter. I would be sadly disappointed, however, to learn that the French would stoop so low as to eat refried beans. I thought they were pretty bad when we first moved to Texas but have since acquired a taste for them. So we found a can one day in an awesome marked called Les Halles. They have the best of the best food you can imagine (and cans of refried beans priced at around 5 bucks a can). So we were at a market on Sunday and spotted dried pinto beans. We bought them and then I spent the day today cooking them to make refried beans. I've never done that before, not when you can buy them at 3 cans for a buck on sale! It sure was a lot of work, and the kitchen turned into one big mess. But the true test came when Kate and Jeff got to eat a plate of nachos and said, "not too bad!".